General Discussion

We have 100 condominiums and the biggest hurdle we will have real soon is asking the Board to resign. The current Board has been in place through 4 terms of 3 years each. We have not had enough eligible voters to vote them off due to fee delinquencies that have kept us from voting them off. We have garnered the support of half of the owners and we will be asking the board politely to resign from the Board at the annual meeting because we want a new board with fresh ideas commitment, and homeowner involvement to improve our investment. The Board has been derelict in a number of responsibilities early on and did not have a sense of urgency in handling matters and in taking care of the smallest items, insurance has lapsed several times, and our property is in shambles. Some of it has been due to financial constraints and other reasons are due to the boards non-performance that was in their control. They failed to have a plan to collect delinquent fees as far back 10 years ago before it got to such a catastrophic level. This board has taken the position that they will stay on the board forever. We plan to make a simple request for their resignations at the meeting due to the number of years service on the Board. The bylaws state a three year term. We expect that the board will not step down willingly. If they do not do we need to request a special meeting to remove them from the Board if they decline to resign? We are in the state of Georgia.

We must make a change.

A.M.

If you have the support of over half the owners, why don't you just vote in new board members?

Thank you so much for the responses. No election has been held each year due to the fact that there is a large delinquencies in fees so we have not had enough voters to vote in a new board. So the current board President and others have stayed in place for more than four terms. And they have no intentions of leaving the board and they have made that clear.

We do have the verbal/written support of about one fourth of the paid up and non-paid up homeowners (who also for one reason or other stop paying their fees due to the conditions)which is not the correct way to have handled it. We plan to ask the board for a resignation. We know that Board will not accept it. We plan to ask them to resign at the annual meeting. If that does not work, then we will call for a special meeting where they can have their say and attempt to remove them from the board by this process. The bylaws say that the Board can be removed with or without cause.

This board has failed to successfully collect delinquent fees for 10 years back and there is a very large receivable of delinquent fees due that the attorney for the board is attempting to collect in any way they can. The required insurance has lapsed several times without any notice to homeowners leaving owners without protection; There is virtually no property maintenance so our property overall has declined; no communication from the Board on important matters affecting homeowners because there is no relationship between the Board and interested homeowners; no meetings where homeowners are invited, etc.

We did form a separate homeowner group/committee early this year to learn more about the bylaws, operations, and to learn how we can change the Board. We are concerned that if there is no change we will continue down the same road forever and they do need to be removed for nothing more than they have served far too long. Of course homeowners have choices.

I must admit that I have some concerns and I have voiced them to the committee.

Your bylaws state a three year term, but don't confuse that with term limits. Sometimes you can have board members serving for many years who are damned good at what they do - why get rid of them just because they've served two or three terms? Conversely, there's your current group - apparently they've gotten too comfortable and might think they're entitled to say on because no one else wants the job. Frankly, they may have a point if you have a massive delinquency problem. After all, the delinquents don't seem to care about their legal obligations to pay assessments (separate from what the board is or isn't doing). Otherwise, how do you expect the board to do its job so the association can provide services with no money?

At your next annual meeting, go ahead and put up your own candidates and make sure all the eligible homeowners show up to cast a vote. If you follow AugustinD's suggestions on checking the voting percentages in your documents, you may have more than enough to give this bunch the heave ho. Just make sure you have people ready and willing to step up, as Melissa pointed out - and yes YOU may need to step up as well.

If these people don't accept being voted out at that time, you may need a special meeting to force them out with a recall. Check your documents to see how special meetings are called - usually, they start with a certain percentage of homeowners signing a petition requesting it. When that petition is presented, the board must call the meeting, but if they refuse, have one anyway. Once again, you need to have people to step up, so if you've identified people willing to do this, you should put together a plan of action for what happens next.

First, it wouldn't hurt to have the association financial records audited to make sure money's going where it's supposed to. You also need to determine what are the most pressing problems that need to be addressed - starting with the delinquency issue. They also need to educate themselves on best practices in running a HOA - this is a non-profit corporation, not a souped-up block club, and must be run like a business.

If you and everyone else is new to this, visit the community association institute (CAI) and buy some of their education materials - they have all sorts of topics, ranging from delinquency collection to parliamentary procedure and back to reserve studies. You want to make sure the newbies and those coming after them know what they're doing and why, so the materials would be a good way to adapt best practices to your association. Good luck!